Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

It is the majority. I do not have the figure. It is more than 50% and I think it is more than two thirds. We can give the Deputy the figure. It comes through the emergency route. This is what the legislation and policy states.

As regards aggressive approaches when people are falling short on income, that is not what we seek. Last year, our acute hospital division and finance division conducted a significant exercise, with external support. We sampled 14 hospitals and looked at all their income processes. We have given it back to the hospitals to implement process improvements. None of the process improvements involves deliberately harassing patients. Our expectation is if income shortfalls are occurring, and the reasons they are occurring include the actions of some insurers, hospitals will make sure they implement process improvements as best they can to maintain their income. It stops there.